Notebooks to get wider screens with higher resolution

The difference in screen sizes between notebook computers and desktop PCs will narrow next year as users get to see more notebook PCs with larger and wider LCDs offering higher resolutions, according to industry executives at the LCD/PDP International 2002 in Yokohama, Japan.

Samsung Electronics will be among the first companies to manufacture wide-screen LCDs with screen sizes larger than 15 inches for notebook PCs, said James Woo, assistant manager of LCD Strategic Marketing Team at Samsung.

Hitachi will follow soon afterwards with a 15.4-inch WXGA TFT LCD set to ship during the first quarter, said Masanori Kataoka, engineer at the company's subsidiary Hitachi Device Engineering.

"Wide screen in 15.4 inches will become the mainstream for notebook PCs," Woo said.

One of the factors driving this shift to wide-screen LCDs is the popularity of DVD-ROM drives, which allow users to watch DVD movies on their notebooks, and the ability to keep multiple windows, such as two Internet browsers, open at one time. Another factor is the increasing use of notebooks as desktop computers, rather than as mobile machines.

To help meet growing demand for wider screens, Philips is mass-producing custom-ordered 17.1-inch WXGA TFT LCDs, with a resolution of 1,440 pixels by 900 pixels for the North American market, said Tae-Kyoung Kwark, deputy general manager of technical sales at Philips.

"Notebook PC LCDs started with a 14.5-inch size. A 15-inch XGA LCD is the mainstream in the large-size notebook PC market, and now it's shifting to a 16-inch and 17-inch class," said Sharp's Toru Imanishi, assistant supervisor at the AVC Liquid Crystal Display Division.

The company hopes that the two prototypes will help realise its concept of an all-in-one PC, which allows users to use the device both as a computer and a television, Imanishi said. However, the adoption of higher resolutions such as UXGA may take some time to become popular with users, he added.

LCDs offering UXGA resolution are mostly found in high-end notebooks designed for specialised applications, such as computer-aided design and graphic design, where higher resolutions are required. Adoption of these displays in mainstream laptops is held back by higher display costs and lack of software support.

"UXGA displays cost around $30 to $40 more, compared to XGA, so I think it is still only for high-end professionals," Woo said.

However, with LCD prices dropping dramatically, UXGA displays could soon be affordable enough to be used in mainstream notebooks and display makers are pushing resolution even higher.

International Display Technology (ID Tech), a joint venture between Taiwan's Chi Mei Optoelectronics and IBM-Japan, has produced a QXGA (2,048 pixel by 1,536 pixel) display which is used in an NEC Versa Pro notebook.

In April, Samsung will join in with the launch of a 15.4-inch WUXGA (1,920 pixel x 1,200 pixel) display. But there are some in the industry who think this push towards higher resolutions will have little impact on mainstream users. "I think consumer notebook resolution will stop at U(XGA). It doesn't need anything higher," Hitachi's Kataoka said.

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